App Lets You Hail A Cab Using Your Smartphone

New York City Taxi (file/credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)New York City Taxi (file/credit: Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Need to hail a cab? There may soon be an app for that.

London-based tech start-up Hailo has just raised $17 million for a venture-capital firm to bring a taxi-tracking app to New York.

Hailo allows users to virtually flag down nearby cabbies that use the service.

“You see the cabbie’s details, their picture, their license plate number, their rating and their real-time location,” CEO Jay Bregman told 1010 WINS. “You then track them as they’re coming to you, you get a notification when they’re outside.”

The app also allows passengers to pay for the ride with a credit card.

“Hailo is a business that is designed to solve the inefficiency on the driver’s side and the accessibility problem on the customer’s side,” Bregman said.